I finally made a change tonight that I've been meaning to for a while to the profile field for gender. For years it only had the option of M or F, and as I've become more educated about gender as a spectrum I've realized that forcing a binary choice is inaccurate, outdated, and unacceptable.

For now I have just added an option of Q for genderqueer, as well as setting the field to allow a user to input their own preferred designation. If anyone wishes to make the case for adding more options, either in a thread I will start in The Information & Suggestion Box forum or via private message to me, then I will be open to their input and making further additions.

I chose not to add TM (trans man) or TW (trans woman) designations for now, as I think a trans person should feel free to simply identify as M or F. But as I am not trans and still learning, I recognize that my not seeing the need for it is not the same as there not being one. So again, there is an option to enter your own designation, and to give input publicly or privately.

It will also still be an option to not make any selection; disclosing gender information or not should be every member's choice. The profile field was added originally so that we could use correct pronouns when referring to each other in discussions, as many user names are ambiguous. Related to that, I'm considering adding a profile field for preferred pronouns (e.g. he/she/zhe/they/etc.), and welcome member input on that as well.